


And That, Was The Ending Of the Tale of Schaelarche and Lowell

by sinteresting_facts, TheatricalAssassin



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, One Shot, Other, Resurrection, Unstoppable Force of Nature, Unyielding Love, WoW RP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-15 00:24:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14780103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinteresting_facts/pseuds/sinteresting_facts, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheatricalAssassin/pseuds/TheatricalAssassin
Summary: On a sunny day there was a railroad carAnd a lady stepping off a trainEverybody looked and everybody sawThat spring had come againA foolhardy choice, a risk that no one needed to take, but love never stops. Love makes you risk it all, love is what keeps us going, love is what keeps us from getting killed.Sometimes though, love is what kills us.With a love songWith a tale of a love that never diesWith a love songFor anyone who tries.





	And That, Was The Ending Of the Tale of Schaelarche and Lowell

**Author's Note:**

> Thought of something truly soul destroying to happen rather than what did, so here we are.

Rushing to Darnassus was hardly a choice anyone had the time to make, with three injured and two on the brink, anywhere but Stormwind was the ideal choice. Laicoris carefully placed Schaelarche on the ground, as careful as she could anyway, immediately yelling for a priestess to come help.

Slowly but surely the rest of the family poured through the portal Balgory had made, the first thing Lowell saw upon entering the Temple of the Moon was Schae’s bleeding body, still in his cat form. Almost sliding upon him, nature magic already flying off their fingertips as they began to work on their love. They might not have been able to do much, but they were going to do whatever it took to keep him alive. Every ounce of their training, both formal and informal, was going into this. They weren’t going to lose him, out of everyone, they absolutely couldn’t. Connecting their energy to that of the nature surrounding, they brought roots up from the ground, plunging them into Schae’s numerous bullet wounds. They can’t heal him without getting them out, this was not the time to be skipping steps.

At the sudden intrusion, Schaelarche shifted jerkily out of feral form, more of an unconscious reaction than anything. The sudden change in body matter ripped new tears in his abdominal cavity as the probing vines suddenly had to adapt to a different digestive system. He choked out a cough, blood and bile rising in his throat and threatening to drown him from the inside out. He convulsed wildly, curling in on himself in pain, further deterring the vines from their goal. It was everything Lowell could do to not panic, unfortunately, there was only so much that they could do without just completely dissociating. They couldn’t do that, but the smell of Schae’s blood was already threatening that, encroaching void upon their mind threatening to take them away as they struggled to even find the bullets now. Schae’s sudden shift away meant that it wasn’t just his body that shifted, but the position of the bullets as well.

He was running out of time, all they could do is work faster. Schae spasmed, coughing blood out in a red hail onto the cobblestones. The vines unwittingly tore at the linings of his stomach, the motions jerking him back into some sliver of consciousness. Panic filled him at the sight of blood, the feel of tearing, probing vines, he thrashed, trying to pull away, weak as he was. Lowell tried to keep him still, his thrashing was only making things worse. They called upon more vines, wrapping around his extremities in an effort to keep him from moving more, something deep within them knowing all too well what this was like.

Strangled noises of protest and terror ripped themselves from his throat, the noises garbled and strained as he coughed up more blood. His vision doubled, everything blurring together as his heart beat faster and faster, breathing growing thin and ragged. The feeling of vines holding him down only added to the boiling panic, everything rolling together in a wash of pain and abject terror. His breath outran him, and he was stuck choking on nothing as he convulsed, choking out horrible, wet noises as he faded away. He couldn’t think straight, couldn’t think at all, and he couldn’t fight any longer.

He went still, body tensing up one final time, then..nothing.

It was too quiet after that, the odd cough or groan from the others in the group gone. 

A breeze shifted skirts and ruffled cuffs quietly, unassuming. 

The stillness settled. 

A harrowing scream echoed through the temple. A howl of the voiceless, the lost pup, a shattered bond falling around them in more ways than one. Their heart twisted in pain as the life didn’t fade from him, but vanished. This was it. There was nothing left to do.

“ _ I am  _ **_not_ ** _ losing you _ !” Their voice echoed throughout the temple, their scream tearing at their throat.

They gathered the last of their energy, slamming their hands on the ground next to him in a pseudo-prayer, nature magic sparking off of their being as they sat up impossibly straight. They moved in a fluid, if unfamiliar, manner, guiding the magic. Priming it for what came next. It only took a second, but in a swift motion they reached out in front of them, grasping something that wasn’t there and bringing their hand down fast just before his chest. Doing everything in their power to not just heal his body, but bring his soul back to it. It was the last thing that could have possibly been done.

Just as they released the magic, bringing his soul back to his still form, Lowell fell. There wasn’t even time to feel pain from hitting the stonework.

 

In the moments between life and re-life, Schae’d felt nothing. It wasn’t like falling asleep, because while you slept, you could dream. There was nothing for moments on end, and those moments felt like an eternity. For all anyone knew, that’s all death ever was.

And then he heard them.

A distant, shattering cry from their soul, not heard by his deafened ears, but  _ felt _ in the last of his power that was quickly returning to the earth. It shook his core, stirring his soul and halting the drain of energy. All at once he fell into himself, awareness seeping into his limbs one muscle at a time. He gasped, shuddering violently as he snapped his eyes open. He flailed, vines and roots flying off of him as he rolled over, coughing. He pushed himself up on shaky arms, every motion felt delayed, like he was leaving behind echoes of his limbs. The world spun like a top around him. 

He couldn’t discern anything yet, couldn’t tell what the  _ hell _ was going on. After a moment catching his breath,  _ fuck, _ it was going to take a lot more than a moment to really catch it but he had it in his grasp for now, he looked around, eyes scanning the surrounding temple grounds wildly. He could barely tell what was around him, his vision not focusing well at all. When he caught sight of Lowell’s prone form, he stopped searching.

He pulled himself forward, limbs barely under his control, and knelt over them, trembling. He sat there, head spinning, hands twitching, horror plastered across his face.

He shook his head side to side, begging anything worth praying to that they were alive, that they hadn’t sacrificed themself for him of all people. He pressed a shaking hand to their shoulder, bracing himself as he all but fell down onto them, ear pressed just to the right of their sternum. For too long, there was nothing. No sound, no feeling, just stillness. Time meant nothing, refusing to move forward.

After an eternity, their heartbeat. It was almost inaudible, even to his fine-tuned hearing. He froze, going almost deathly still, trying to make sure he hadn’t imagined their heartbeat. Sure enough, there it was, softer than the flutter of a butterfly’s wings. His breathing quickened and he tried to think of what to do, what to  _ do _ . His hands gripped the material of their clothing as he tried to order his thoughts. Right.

He sat up quickly, almost going down again as his head rushed, and placed his hands on their chest, pressing down firmly and in rapid thrusts. He thought he’d read about this somewhere, fuck, this would have to work  _ somehow _ .

Their arm almost acted as a guide to how far gone they were, the bioluminescence inherent to its design barely managing to look as green dying embers at first. With each compression, a small amount of light flickered through, and steadily it started to take hold.

That was his lifeline, as much as it was theirs. With every press, with every edge brighter, he grew a fraction more hopeful. He fell into the rote task of chest compressions and extended just a fraction of his focus into tapping into the link. It was like hitting a stone with flint, it took a couple clicks to find it again.

<L-Lowe, come on love,  _ please, _ come on–>

He had no idea if they could hear him, but he kept talking. Thinking the millions of “I love you”’s and “You are my everything”s that he thought he’d have years to tell them, just on the off chance they could hear him.

<Please love, please come back with me.>

There was a flicker of movement, they slowly moved their hand to his, not even having the strength to grasp it. Their eyes fluttered open, their gaze unsteady and unfocused, but they recognized their love.

Thanks to them, he had strength enough now for the both of them. 

He stopped pressing, hands shrinking away at the thought of damaging their ribs more than he already may have. He took their hand in his and cried. Tears slipped down his cheeks, catching in his fur as he took their hand like it was a precious artifact. He mumbled half-blessings and half-thank yous, audible only as a hushed whisper. He reached shakily for their cheek, slowly, hesitantly, and at the last moment reached up to brush a strand of their mane out of their eye. They stared back up at him, even as horrible as he looked right now seeing him alive,  _ breathing _ , it meant that they did it. 

Their hand slowly lost whatever grasp it had on his, slipping away into the cold darkness in his arms. Their lifeline still glowing brilliantly as they became still once more. His face twisted into deep concern once more, blinking at them a few times before he processed that they were out cold. He panicked, thinking for a moment they’d slipped away for good, and picked them up off the ground, cradling them in his arms. It took him a moment more to realize that their arm was glowing still, but he still couldn’t rest his beating heart. He hugged them close, trembling. The world kept taking, and taking, and taking. Just when everything got settled, just went it’d stuck around long enough in their lives to make an impression. Everything was ripped away from them, rending their souls asunder. 

Today, today was the day they looked fate in the eyes and said no. Today wasn’t for dying, today was for living, for love. Triumph over death came not through stubbornness, but through the love of one another. It came when two souls synced up so closely that nothing could ever bring them apart, not even death. As uncertain as the future was, they were certain, and what more could they ever hope for.


End file.
